Posted on 06/24/2006 10:43:47 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Recently the Trib showed a map of the proposed 640-mile-long Trans-Texas Corridor-35 and the initial 316-mile toll road-and-rail segment between San Antonio and Dallas.
Notice the area through Williamson, Bell, Fall and McLennan counties, then deduce why TXU’s previous plans to build three coal-burning plants in Robertson and Milam counties were suddenly switched to McLennan County.
You will see, raising its ugly head, a 10-mile-wide “blue line” east of and roughly parallel to our Interstate 35. This marks the path of the TTC-35 tollway with its proposed electric-powered bullet train.
With 11 coal-burning plants planned in Texas, is corporate TXU interested only in lowering our electrical cost, as CEO John Wilder says?
Or, is the company actually expecting to reap more profits from three coal-burners concentrated in McLennan County?
These profits will come from the sale of TXU’s electricity to the tollway, which is to be financed by and contracted for 50 years to Cintra Concesiones de Infracstructuras de Transports, S.A. of Madrid, Spain.
Wilder mentions the lowering of “U.S. dependence on foreign energy sources and reductions of power prices” as a reason for the plants. Is the added pollution worth a bullet train’s expected necessary “shot” of electricity every 50 miles?
Our clean air can no more be replaced than our tons of black top soil can be rooted out to be concrete-covered with a toll highway-rail system. This land drew the forebears of today’s farmers and ranchers from Europe. We must stop such a travesty against our heritage of clean air and deep black soil just to enable a foreign- financed company to ship foreign goods through our state.
In this 50-year plan of toll road and rail, think of what this same burgeoning population will be breathing and eating and wearing when each mile of this folly will destroy 146 acres of productive land, plus fragmenting other farm or ranch acres, putting them out of use.
We must root out the officials who tout this unthinkable path of destruction through the Blackland Prairie, this “biggest land grab in Texas history” as Carole Keeton Strayhorn calls it.
Say “no” to Gov. Perry and his corporate backers who fail to respect the air we breathe and the productive soil we till.
Julia Whatley of Eddy is a retired teacher.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
BTTT
Thanks for the ping!
This is an editorial. It may or may not be factual but it is an editorial nonetheless. You may want to tell readers this.
bump.
You're welcome.
Sorry about that, I forgot to check the "editorial" box. I will make the correction. Thanks.
No problem.
Coal is currently where most of our electricity comes from now.
Coal is where most of our electricity will come from for the next 150 years.
Coal is and will be the cheapest form of electricy for the next 50 years.
The air is CLEANER now than it was 30 years ago (even with all those coal plants).
Bitch about land grabs all you want, but leave the coal boogeyman out of.
Technically, it's not even that . . . it's a letter to the Editor.
We need more of both things. Coal plants to make it into gasoline, and toll roads that don't allow trucks and have no speed limits.
An electric bullet train shifts the pollution from your tail pipe to the power plant itself where it is precipitated out down to almost nothing.
In addition, the vehicle/miles replaced by the bullet train are fueled by home-grown fuel, not by imported fuel.
I'm not really pro-train, but I'm willing to see the experiment go forward.
If you run for office, you've got my vote.
Absolutely.
I think they should be forced to build in a location where they will make much less money. Lower profits benefit all of America and is the foundation of the capitalist system.
/sarc.
Before a coal mine can be built, there are litterally thousands of enviornmental regulations that must be met.
OTOH, I loathe the idea of cutting the great state of Texas down the middle with this idiot toll-road/highway system. We must not let this happen!
Coal: the energy source of the 17th century coming soon to a Texas county near you! TXU need to take it's head out of the coal bin and start plans for nuclear generators in North Texas. The public deaths from coal train crossings more than justifies that (and there will be some-just as there has been in the past).
NRG Energy (majority owner of the South Texas Project- http://www.stpnoc.com/ ) announced 21June they will be adding two nukes SW of Houston. TXU needs to follow suit in North Texas.
More info
http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2006/06/nrg-to-spend-16-billion-on-new.html
Nobody loves nukes more than me but It will be 50+ years before it puts a dent in coal use for electric generation. Coal is just too cheap and the technology exists to make it clean.
In 50 years we could be getting ALL of our gasoline from coal and sequester the carbon to keep the moonbats at bay.
Also, anyone stupid enough to get in front of a moving coal train deserves the Darwin award they will receive.
This is one of those marvelous examples of where hard Left meets hard Right.
I was being kind.
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